Amaya Gaming CEO Scandal: Insider Trading Charges Detailed

Details of the charges laid against Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov by Quebec financial regulators are beginning to emerge and they point to a very tangled web of affairs at the online gambling giant.

According to a recently published report on Le Journal de Montreal, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), believe that David Baazov handed off internal company documents to his brother, Josh Baazov. Those documents, according to the AMF, contained privileged information that was not readily available to investing public.

Even worse, Josh Baazov allegedly passed that information on to longtime Baazov family friend and business partner, Craig Levitt. Levitt is suspected of passing that information on to his own group of 13 business partners who turned it into a $1.3 million profit.

While it might seem odd that this group of well-heeled businessmen would potentially risk so much for a payday of only $100,000 each, that specific transaction may only be the tip of the iceberg. The charges detailed by the AMF refer to business dealings that stretch back as far as 2010.

According to the AMF, Josh Baazov and Craig Levitt profited handsomely from other Amaya purchases, including the 2010 purchase of Cryptologic and at least four other acquisitions. In each instance, Levitt and Baazov were allegedly the beneficiaries of insider information that came directly from David Baazov – again, according to the AMF.

There’s no question that the case against David Baazov is incredibly complicated and isn’t likely to be resolved any time soon. There’s also no question that the case against David Baazov is anything but bad news for Amaya Gaming and its shareholders.